Summer Reading for NCCS Middle School Students 2025

Abeni, a reluctant magical apprentice, and a team of spirit kids set out to save their village from the evil Witch Priest who captured and marched off everyone toward ghost ships bound for distant lands. Grades 4-6

When twelve-year old Ivy attends West Archer Academy, she is determined to graduate in two years and eventually follow her hero Ruth Bader Ginsberg to the Supreme Court, but after her roommate introduces her to a group of students who are hundreds of years old, she is forced to reexamine her priorities. Grades 4-7 (Lexile: 600)

Eleven-year-old Daisy Thistledown is on the run. Her mother has been keeping big, glittering secrets, and now she has vanished. Daisy knows it's up to her to find Ma--but someone is hunting her across London. Someone determined to stop her from discovering the truth. So when Daisy flees to safety through a mysterious hidden doorway, she can barely believe her eyes--she has stepped out of the city and into another world. This is the Greenwild. Bursting with magic and full of amazing natural wonders, it seems too astonishing to be true. But not only is this land of green magic real, it holds the key to finding Daisy's mother. And someone wants to destroy it. Daisy must band together with a botanical genius, a boy who can talk with animals, and a cat with an attitude to uncover the truth about who she really is. Only then can she channel the power that will change her whole world ... and save the Greenwild itself. Grades 4-7

As twelve-year-old aspiring taekwondo champion Modesty "Mo" Seto faces off against her nemesis in a movie audition, she uncovers a mysterious book and embarks on an adventure to rescue her missing father and discover hidden martial art secrets. Grades 4-7

An outsider in her village above the cloud sea, 12-year-old orphan Yeung Zhi Ging's only hope of escape is to win the single invitation to train as a Silhouette: an apprentice to the immortals. After her ill-fated attempt to impress the Silhouette scout leads to a dragon attack on the jade mountain, Zhi Ging is sure that her chances, and her life, are over. But the scout spots her potential and offers her protection and a second chance. She's in. Grades 5-8 (Lexile: 940)

Eight singular middle schoolers from across America find belonging in a series of escape room-type challenges. Each sixth grader assumes that winning a coveted spot to spend three days at the Octagon Valley Institute led by Willy Wonka-esque Onasander Octagon--an ethnically ambiguous multiracial tech genius--means winning a 'golden ticket to the rest of your life.' However, they soon realize that instead of an academic conference, they will each have to utilize their particular skills to find eight puzzle pieces in a high-stakes scavenger hunt. Grades 5-7 (Lexile: 680)

Eleven-year-old Roswell Johnson is obsessed with conspiracies about extraterrestrial life, an interest he inherited from his late father, who aptly named Roswell after the infamous UFO crash in Roswell, New Mexico. 

When Roswell is accidentally abducted by aliens, his biggest dream comes true—he learns that aliens are real! But when he discovers Earth is in grave danger, he must join forces with a team of quirky extraterrestrials, including two bickering Grays, a humorless Cyborg, a germophobic Mantis, an overly confident Furgarian, and an over achieving Pleiadean to save his planet from a tyrannical invasion. But can Roswell restore his own faith in humanity and Earth in time to save the world? Grades 4-7

When twelve-year old Ivy attends West Archer Academy, she is determined to graduate in two years and eventually follow her hero Ruth Bader Ginsberg to the Supreme Court, but after her roommate introduces her to a group of students who are hundreds of years old, she is forced to reexamine her priorities. Grades 4-7 (Lexile: 600)

Ava Baldwin has always tried to keep her anger in check, just like her mom taught her. But when know-it-all classmate Owen King tries to speak over her yet again, Ava explodes . . . and Owen freezes, becoming totally unresponsive.

Although Owen recovers, Ava's parents whisk her off to her mother's alma mater, the Accademia del Forte, a mysterious international boarding school in Venice. There, Ava and her brother, Jax, discover that the Olympian gods founded the Accademia to teach the descendants of mythological monsters how to control their emotions and their powers and become functioning, well-adjusted members of society.

But not everything at the Accademia is as it seems. After her friend Fia is almost expelled for challenging a teacher, Ava realizes the school is hiding a dangerous secret. To uncover the truth, Ava and her new friends embark on an adventure that could change the way they view history, mythology--and themselves--forever...or end their lives. Grades 4-7

An outsider in her village above the cloud sea, 12-year-old orphan Yeung Zhi Ging's only hope of escape is to win the single invitation to train as a Silhouette: an apprentice to the immortals. After her ill-fated attempt to impress the Silhouette scout leads to a dragon attack on the jade mountain, Zhi Ging is sure that her chances, and her life, are over. But the scout spots her potential and offers her protection and a second chance. She's in. Grades 5-8 (Lexile: 940)

hen twelve-year-old Rayleigh discovers he's part monster and that his dad, the Supreme Scarer, is missing, he journeys to a magical world below London where he must fight the most frightening, decide what sort of monster he is at heart, and find his father. Grades 6-8

Eleven-year-old Roswell Johnson is obsessed with conspiracies about extraterrestrial life, an interest he inherited from his late father, who aptly named Roswell after the infamous UFO crash in Roswell, New Mexico. 

When Roswell is accidentally abducted by aliens, his biggest dream comes true—he learns that aliens are real! But when he discovers Earth is in grave danger, he must join forces with a team of quirky extraterrestrials, including two bickering Grays, a humorless Cyborg, a germophobic Mantis, an overly confident Furgarian, and an over achieving Pleiadean to save his planet from a tyrannical invasion. But can Roswell restore his own faith in humanity and Earth in time to save the world? Grades 4-7

Twelve-year-old Charley Cuffey is many things: a granddaughter, a best friend, and probably the best pitcher in all of Lee's Mill. Set on becoming the first female pitcher to play professional ball, Charley doesn't need reminders from her best friend Cool Willie Green to know that she has lofty dreams for a Black girl in the American South. Even so, Nana Kofi's thrilling stories about courageous ancestors and epic journeys make it impossible not to dream big. She knows he has so many more to tell, but according to her parents, she isn't old enough to know about certain things like what happened to Booker Preston that one night in Great Bridge and why she can never play on the brand-new real deal baseball field on the other side of town. Grades 5-8

Portico Reeves--or Stuntboy, the greatest superhero people have never heard of--tries to manage his frets and navigate his new normal with divorced parents, bullies in his building, and a newfound friend. Grades 3-5

When twelve-year old Ivy attends West Archer Academy, she is determined to graduate in two years and eventually follow her hero Ruth Bader Ginsberg to the Supreme Court, but after her roommate introduces her to a group of students who are hundreds of years old, she is forced to reexamine her priorities. Grades 4-7 (Lexile: 600)

As twelve-year-old aspiring taekwondo champion Modesty "Mo" Seto faces off against her nemesis in a movie audition, she uncovers a mysterious book and embarks on an adventure to rescue her missing father and discover hidden martial art secrets. Grades 4-7

Ten-year-old twins Ike and Iris race to find the thief stealing valuable historical artifacts before their family is framed for the crimes, Grades 4-6

Eight singular middle schoolers from across America find belonging in a series of escape room-type challenges. Each sixth grader assumes that winning a coveted spot to spend three days at the Octagon Valley Institute led by Willy Wonka-esque Onasander Octagon--an ethnically ambiguous multiracial tech genius--means winning a 'golden ticket to the rest of your life.' However, they soon realize that instead of an academic conference, they will each have to utilize their particular skills to find eight puzzle pieces in a high-stakes scavenger hunt. Grades 5-7 (Lexile: 680)

hirteen-year-old twins Hope and Gordon enter a spelling bee in a last-ditch effort to save their family from financial ruin, only to find themselves in a cut-throat competition to uncover a fortune and dark secrets about the wealthy relations they have never known. Grades 4-7

In this conclusion to the series, the Vanderbeekers are looking forward to the wedding of two of their favorite people. But when one of the siblings receives a dire diagnosis, instead of preparing for a celebration, the family is suddenly spending their time at the hospital. And soon they are helping a critically ill friend, even as they struggle with how their own lives have turned upside down. Grades 4-7

Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle is no stranger to misfortune. Bullied at school and struggling with problems at home, he dreams of the day he can leave it all behind him. That's when he receives an unexpected opportunity: an invitation to join the Factory -- a top-secret research facility that's supposedly developing renewable energy -- and Asher will be paid handsomely for his participation. It seems like the answer to all his problems.

But not everything is as it seems at the Factory. The other kids in the program are tired and sullen, almost as if they've had the life sucked out of them, and the staff members are clearly hiding something. What's more, Asher discovers he wasn't chosen at random; someone in the program desperately wants him to participate. Asher can't help but feel that whatever the Factory is doing, it's not what he or any of the other kids signed up for. Grades 4-7 (Lexile: 810)

Eleven-year-old Roswell Johnson is obsessed with conspiracies about extraterrestrial life, an interest he inherited from his late father, who aptly named Roswell after the infamous UFO crash in Roswell, New Mexico. 

When Roswell is accidentally abducted by aliens, his biggest dream comes true—he learns that aliens are real! But when he discovers Earth is in grave danger, he must join forces with a team of quirky extraterrestrials, including two bickering Grays, a humorless Cyborg, a germophobic Mantis, an overly confident Furgarian, and an over achieving Pleiadean to save his planet from a tyrannical invasion. But can Roswell restore his own faith in humanity and Earth in time to save the world? Grades 4-7

Twelve-year-old Charley Cuffey is many things: a granddaughter, a best friend, and probably the best pitcher in all of Lee's Mill. Set on becoming the first female pitcher to play professional ball, Charley doesn't need reminders from her best friend Cool Willie Green to know that she has lofty dreams for a Black girl in the American South. Even so, Nana Kofi's thrilling stories about courageous ancestors and epic journeys make it impossible not to dream big. She knows he has so many more to tell, but according to her parents, she isn't old enough to know about certain things like what happened to Booker Preston that one night in Great Bridge and why she can never play on the brand-new real deal baseball field on the other side of town. Grades 5-8